


Children of Prophecy

by Sidhewrites



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Mild Language, Past Sexual Assault, References to Drugs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-04
Updated: 2019-01-04
Packaged: 2019-10-04 02:01:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17295557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sidhewrites/pseuds/Sidhewrites
Summary: The night that the Dark Lord came to the Godric's Hollow he found not one, but three children that pertained to the prophecy. Lily and Alice gave their lives and sanity to defend them, and James, Sirius and Frank were left to raise them.  It's been 13 years since that fateful night and the children are finally going to Hogwarts, where adventure, new friends, and old enemies await.  Something big is happening at Hogwarts this year, and their family didn't want them to miss out. But danger stalks the halls of Hogwarts too, and as inevitable as water rolling down hill, Harry and his friends will find themselves smack in the middle of it.  Dangers that will test the bounds of their friendships, their trust in family, and life as they know it.





	Children of Prophecy

**Author's Note:**

> This is a darker take to my Neo-Marauders series that I have posted on FF.net. It starts in Fourth Year, with the trio being 14 when they hit Hogwarts, instead of 11. The themes will be darker, and hit a few things that usually play a part in teens life a bit more, alongside magic and crazy mad wizards wanting them dead.  
> I would love to hear feedback on this, I will be working on this story in between working on my original bits of fiction, so the updating schedule for this will be irregular. I apologize in advance.

Harry

 

Late morning sun shone through the windows of the scarlet Hogwarts Steam Engine carriage, heating the compartment that was being shared by three teenagers.  Harry Potter, a 14 year-old boy with messy black hair that stuck out in every direction and emerald green eyes, had one bench all to himself and he was taking full advantage of it.  His feet were stretched out and he had a fourth year spell book open on his lap, wand in hand, practising movements.  A quick glance to his right showed that his two pseudo-siblings were also settling in nicely.

Neville Longbottom sat with one leg up and on the small table that was against the compartment wall and the other on the floor.  Neville was a bit taller than Harry was and was wider through the shoulders, sunlight reflected off his short cropped light blonde hair, and he had his dark brown eyes closed, enjoying the warmth of the sun.

Kestrel Black was stretched out on the bench with her head pillowed on Neville’s thigh. Like Harry, she too had black hair, though hers was more charcoal coloured, and if her eyes were open they would be blue grey. Unlike the two boys though, whose skin was a healthy tan from spending time in the outdoors all summer; her skin, while tan, was pale, her eyes had large bags under them and she seemed to be sleeping fitfully.

Neville twitched his wand and the blinds above the window rolled down and blocked out the light.  “Better Kes?”

“Hmm, yeah thanks Nev.”  Kestrels’ voice was quiet and thready, making both boys frown.

“How’d you sleep last night, Kestrel? You still have that headache?”  Harry closed his wand in his book to hold his place, set it aside, and turned so he could look at Kestrel straight on.  Green eyes full of concern.

“I slept a few hours, woke up around 3 and couldn’t get back to sleep.  Head still hurts; the potion Aunt Andromeda gave me took the edge off, but didn’t get rid of it.”  She reached up and tugged the hood of her cloak lower over her head, blocking out even more light, leaving only her nose and mouth uncovered.

Neville shifted around carefully moving so that his legs were crossed underneath him and Kestrel’s head was resting on his crossed legs.   He floated his cloak down from the overhead rack and balled it up before lifting Kes’ head and putting it under her softly.  Once she settled back into a more comfortable position he started rubbing her temples in a clockwise direction with gentle fingers.

Kestrel groaned a quiet sound of appreciation, “You’re the best Neville.  Let no one tell you different.”

“They don’t.”  His two friends laughed, levity overshadowing their shared worry for a few moments.

They sat in companionable silence, Neville’s ministrations helping to ease the young witch’s headache slightly.

Harry pulled his feet up so his chin was resting on his knees, gazing in worry at his best friend, resting in his other best friends’ lap.  He reached a hand up and rubbed the bridge of his nose, under the bridge of his round glasses.  “Are you still having nightmares?”

The corners of Kestrel’s mouth turned down hard and she twisted her head minutely towards Harry.  The green-eyed boy could easily imagine the glare that Kestrel was sending his way, having been on the receiving end many times in their fourteen years.

“You know the answer to that question, so why would you even bother to ask?”

He gestured with his hands in frustration, struggling to put his thoughts into words.  “You never talk about it with anyone, and, and –” he snapped his fingers in triumph and pointed a finger at Kestrel, “A problem shared is a problem halved.”

“Do not quote idioms at me, Harry James Potter.  Just because I don’t talk about my problems with _you_ , does not mean that I don’t talk about them.”  She flexed the wrist closest to Harry, her wand slipped into her hand, and she pointed vaguely in his direction.

“Now, I am going to ask you once, to drop it. If you don’t, so help me, Harry, I will hex you with my eyes shut and if I hit you somewhere interesting it will be your own bloody fault.”

“Okay, okay, okay.  I get the point, put the wand away, bloody hell.”  Harry raised his hands in defeat and leaned to the right, moving himself out of the path of Kestrel’s wand.

“Thank you.” Another subtle twist of her wrist, and her wand was hidden away once again in the dragon hide holster that was strapped to her forearm.

Neville leaned forward, shifting the hood of her cloak so that brown eyes could look into grey.  “You know that if you ever want to talk, to either of us, that we’re here for you.  Right, Harry?”

“Right.  We love you Kes, you’re our sister and we want to help you.  So if you _ever_ want to talk to us about anything, we’re here.”

Kes glanced back and forth between the two a soft smile on her face.  “Thanks guys.  Now that all the mushy stuff is out of the way, can I try and get some more sleep?”  All three chuckled as Kestrel settled herself back in Neville’s lap, pulling her hood back over her eyes.  Harry opened his book up again and Neville settled back against the wall of the compartment deciding to get some sleep of his own.

 

Several hours had passed and Neville and Kestrel were still dozing, the steady rocking of the train was soothing and relaxing, and helped them stay asleep.  Harry had moved on from his Grade 4 Spell Book to his Potions text, trying to get ahead in his studies.  Potions was easily his worst subject.  He knew the theory behind the ingredients, how and why they worked together the way that they did, but he could not for the life of him, brew a potion.  It always came out wrong and unusable.

Harry had just flipped the page to read the author’s notes on the previous pages potion, when a commotion coming from outside their compartment made him look up.  He closed the book and silently made his way over to the door to press his ear against it, trying to get a better idea of what was going on beyond.

A distant sneering voice floated up from further down the carriage, and in through the cracks of the compartment occupied by the three siblings.  “Come on little Weaselette, I just have a new spell I want to show you.  I’ve heard that you’re always looking for new ones.”

Harry stepped away from the compartment door just as the handle jiggled desperately.  He sat back down as the door slid open and a petite, pretty red-head slid into the compartment, quickly shutting the door behind her.  She pulled out a holly wood wand and tapped the door with a hissed _Colloptourus_ and dropped into a squat, ducking down underneath the window so that the bright red of her hair could not be seen from the outside.

Kestrel and Neville had woken up when the door opened.  They were now sitting up and had joined Harry in staring at the new arrival to their compartment warily.  The girl must have sensed the three pairs of eyes on her, because she suddenly spun around on her heels, brown eyes wide and wand pointed in front of her.

The four students stared at one another in silence for several moments, and Harry saw Neville’s left arm flexing against Kestrel’s back out of the corner of his eye, and knew that he now had his wand in his hand.

Before any of them could ask who she was and why she was in their compartment, the snide voice Harry had heard earlier came again, this time much closer to their door.  The girl whirled back around, wand now held close to her side, eyes fixed firmly on the handle of the door.

“Where did that red-headed little wench go?  She couldn’t have gotten that far ahead of us.  You two, check these compartments for her.”  The voice was loud and obnoxious enough that several other occupied compartments had heard and one of the occupants to the right of Harry, Neville, and Kestrel raised their own voice in protest of the snide one’s idea, in a rough Irish brogue.

“If I see silver and green enter this compartment, I will hex first and happily take the consequences!”

There were a few more moments of silence before the voice spoke again.  “I’ll get the Blood Traitor later; I do have the weekend after all.  Come along Crabbe, Goyle.”

As the sound of footsteps faded away the girl slumped in relief and she sat on the floor, back against the door.  “Sorry for barging in.”

Harry shrugged his shoulders and reclaimed his seat, pulling one leg up underneath him, and resting his chin on his knee.  “It’s alright; it looks like you really needed a place to hide.”

“Yeah, thanks for that.  And for not hexing me when I pulled my wand on you lot.  I’m Ginny Weasley, by the way.”

“Nice to meet you Ginny, even if they are under such strange circumstances.  I’m Harry Potter.  The pretty bird across from me hiding in her cloak is Kestrel Black, and the strapping lad behind her is Neville Longbottom.”

Ginny could only stare at the three of them in astonished silence for several moments before a knowing smirk made it’s way across her face, brown eyes lighting up in amusement.

“Well, it’s about time you three showed up.  People have been wondering where you all vanished to, especially after you didn’t show up for your first year.”  The fire haired young woman pushed herself off the floor and dropped down onto the bench next to Harry, back braced against the wall and her legs crossed comfortably beneath her.  A look of annoyance flashed across her face for a brief moment, “Bloody hell, I think I owe that leprechaun, Finnegan, money!”

“Yes well, we’re sorry to have kept you all waiting.”  Harry quipped as he leaned down to pick up his potions book he had dropped earlier.  Neville and Kestrel by this time had both sat up fully, Neville’s wand safely hidden once again in his own wrist holster.

Kestrel winced and pulled her hood down further over her face.  “Yes, apologies, but you see we’ve been a little busy running from the various followers of the Dark Tosser that have been looking for us.”

“Yes that, and we didn’t want to attend Hogwarts right away.”

Ginny looked at Neville in astonishment at his statement.  “Not attend Hogwarts? Why ever not?”

Harry settled back in a position that mirrored Ginny’s.  “It’s nothing personal against the school itself, per se.  More like a dislike of some of the student body, namely the children of “former” Death Eaters that attend.”

“You mean people like Draco Malfoy, right?”

Kestrel waved a hand disinterestedly, voice still soft when she spoke.  “Nah, the little silver dragon isn’t a problem for us.  Yes he’s a bit of a prat, but he’s not anyone we need to worry about.”

“We meant people like Rosier, Yaxley, Montague, and others of that ilk.”  Harry clarified keeping his own voice low, noticing how much Kestrel was wincing at the noise.  “The children of Death Eaters who would have been in Fourth to Seventh year when we would have been in First.”

“But since they’re graduated now it’s no longer a great deal of concern.”  Neville finished for his siblings.  “That and there seems to be something interesting happening at Hogwarts this year, that our father’s thought would be an excellent learning opportunity.”

“Yeah, my dad and brother’s were all very secretive about the whole thing, made for a very frustrating summer…Are you okay Kestrel?”  Ginny turned and looked at the dark haired witch in concern.  Kestrel had pulled her hood down over her face as far as she could, and had practically curled into a ball to escape all sound and light.

Harry quickly tried to think up a lie that would explain Kes’ headaches, without giving away her propensity to nightmares and sleepless nights.

Luckily Neville managed to come up with one just a bit quicker.  “Kes has a problem with headaches, has had for a few years.  Sometimes they’re not too bad, other days, like today, they’re awful.”

“Our Aunt gave me a headache potion this morning, and it helped a bit, but I think it’s starting to wear off.”  Kes managed to smile weakly out from underneath her hood, her mouth being the only part of her that was visible.

Ginny tilted her head in thought for a moment before seemingly coming to some sort of internal decision.  She reached into her bag and pulled out a small vial of lilac coloured potion.  “I have this headache relief potion that you can use if you want.  It’s an old family recipe; I’ve used it since my 3rd Year, works great.  You can alter the amount of certain ingredients, just enough, now and then that it keeps you from building up an immunity to its affects.”

Kes glanced at her brothers and they both shrugged imperceptibly and Kes nodded at Ginny, “If you’re willing to part with it, I’ll happily take it.”

“It’s not a problem; I know the recipe so I can always brew up some more.”  Ginny leaned over and placed the vial in Kestrel’s outstretched hand.

Kestrel raised the potion in thanks and quickly shot it back.  Within moments the light no longer hurt her eyes and the auras she had been seeing dissipated.  She pushed the hood of her cloak off her head and gave a lopsided smile, “Well that’s much better.  Thank you, Ginny.”

“You’re welcome, happy to help.  If you ever need more, just ask, I always have a batch on the brew during the school year.”

“Really?”  Harry tried to hide his surprise but was sure he fell flat at the look Ginny gave him.

“Yes.  A lot of people get headaches; students who study late, OWL and NEWT students’ years are usually one giant headache, or people with chronic headache issues,” she gestured towards Kestrel who was giving Harry a dirty look.

“Right, sorry, forget I said anything.”  Harry held up his hands in surrender and sat back in his seat sullenly.

The sat in awkward silence for several minutes before Neville decided he couldn’t handle it anymore.  “So, Ginny…you like Quidditch?”

Ginny blinked at him for a moment before grinning and starting to chuckle quietly, prompting Harry to join in and Kestrel to hug Neville, “Still the best, Nev.”

 

After that the conversation flowed much better between the four teens, and they went through the topics of Quidditch, Hogwarts, friends, and hobbies.  Kestrel was sitting with one leg thrown over Neville’s and she and Ginny debated the validity of various runes and their uses in wards, and enhancing magic and potions.

“Wow Kestrel, you certainly know your runes, I should introduce you to my oldest brother Bill.  He’s a Curse Breaker for Gringotts.”

“Really? That’s is and would be absolutely brilliant.  These two have no interest in Curse Breaking, but they let my talk their ears off about it anyway.  If he’s open to me writing him and asking him questions and the like that would be amazing!”

“Sure I’ll ask him when I write him this week.  I’m sure he’ll be fine with it.  There aren’t many people lining up to be Curse Breakers, and there are hardly ever any Witches that want to do the job.”  She glanced down at the watch that was on her hand, the band was old, soft, black leather, and the face cover had several scratches.

“Bloody hell, I didn’t realise that was the time.  I need to get back to my compartment and change, we’ll be arriving at the station soon.”  Ginny stood and stretched her arms above her head, sighing as her spine popped and cracked as it realigned itself after she had been sitting for so long.

She slid the compartment door open and smiled at the others who were wrestling with their own trunks, Harry and Kestrel were arguing about whose trunk they had stuffed their robes into.  “Well I’ll suppose I’ll see you three again once you’re Sorted into your Houses, or House if you all end up in the same one.”

“It was great meeting you Ginny, even if was under the threat of a hexing.”  Neville chuckled as he took the robes that Kestrel shoved at him.

“Yeah, we’ll have to get together if we aren’t sorted into the same house, it was nice to participate in some intelligent conversation for once.”

“I heard that, Black.”  Harry’s voice was muffled as he had tried to pull his robes over his head without undoing them.

“You were supposed to, Potter.”

Ginny shook her head at the two sibling’s weirdness.  “We’ll talk more at the Welcome Feast.  See you guys in an hour or so.”  She waved and let the door slide shut behind her.

“Umm…guys?”  Neville and Kestrel turned from the door and looked at Harry, who was quite stuck inside his robes, his arms raised up over his head, his hands flopping about helplessly.  “A little help?”


End file.
